The Post-Pixie Cut Perspective: What Female Celebrities Say After They Chop Off Their Hair

From left to right: by Ian Gavan/Getty Images; by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images; by Jason Merritt/Getty Images.

It’s basically a right of passage for a female celebrity: the pixie cut. It’s shocking; it captures the attention of the Internet for at least a week, usually longer; depending on your age and career trajectory, it can recast your persona entirely, in terms of maturity or fashion-i-ness. Then, after the cut, almost without fail, comes thequote. Usually there is some potentially hyperbolic gushing; typically the word “free” or “change” is given prime placement; often the woman will either state forthright or imply that the cut has transformed her entirely.

Given the recent spate of pixies (Jennifers Aniston, Lawrence and Hudson; Kristin Chenoweth; Pamela Anderson), we felt it was worth taking a look at the narrow field of post-short hair declarations, which we’ve subdivided into the three most salient buckets.

Anne Hathaway: “After it was gone, I realized my hair and I were kind of like frenemies . . . and now we’re friends.”

Pamela Anderson: “I just thought my hair had had a life and I kind of wanted to put that behind me and start fresh.”

Naturally, as with any rule, there is an exception. And in this case, we present the ever-candid Jennifer Lawrence, who said yesterday of her new pixie, “[My previous hair] couldn’t get any uglier . . . It grew to an awkward gross length, and I kept putting it back in a bun and I was like ‘I don't want to do this,’ so I just cut it off.”